Thirty late payers vote manually in NCPAG

Scholars of the House of Representatives received funds for their tuition late, so they had to request for an extension for payment.

By Vince Nonato

Source: NCPAG CSEB

Thirty students had to vote manually in the National College of Public Administration (NCPAG) yesterday at the university and local council elections due to late tuition payment, 24 of which were graduate students on scholarship grants.

Scholars of the House of Representatives received funds for their tuition late, so they had to request for an extension for payment.

According to College Secretary Jocelyn Cuaresma, five undergraduate students had the same problem.

Only 476 out of 589 NCPAG voters were allowed to vote online, while 113 voters, or 20 percent, had to vote manually, said Cuaresma.

NCPAG’s 238 votes resulted in a turnout of 40.27 percent, higher than the expected range of 30 percent. 181 votes were from undergraduates while 57 were from graduate students.

Misprinted vote almost disqualified

One manual vote from an undergraduate student was almost not included in the counting because of a misprint that did not included selections for the position of undergraduate councilor.

The Electoral Board announced, after determining the total number of votes for local positions, that the ballot in question would not be counted. After a quick discussion, they later retracted the decision.

The ballot would not have affected the results significantly; the winners would still be the same.

PALS gains majority

The Practice of Administrative Leadership and Service (PALS), an ally of Nagkakaisang Iskolar para sa Pamantasan at Sambayanan (KAISA), and the sole party running in the election, regained the majority of the NCPAG Student Council, claiming eight of its eleven positions.

Chairperson-elect Julliano Fernando “Jules” Guiang, Vice Chairperson-elect Desiree “Des” Ico, all undergraduate councilors, and most of the administrators belong to PALS, which is NCPAG’s only accredited party this year.

Independent candidate Carlos Alipio Fernandez won the position of External Affairs Administrator over PALS candidate Karlo Diaz with a margin of 3 votes.

Aubrey de Guzman, an independent candidate who was not in the first official list of candidates, won the position of Finance Administrator over PALS’s John Paul Carlos Mogatas, with 118 votes over 100.

The only independent candidate to run unopposed, Graduate Councilor-elect Danilo Lesaca, won with 58 votes over 4 abstaining votes.

KAISA’s candidate for College Representative, Sarah Mendoza, lost to independent Antonio Rafael “Tochi” Ongkeko Jr. 125 voted for Ongkeko while 90 did for Mendoza.

Last year, a delayed local election marked the first time that one in UP is not synchronized with the USC elections.